


In the Dragon's Lair

by Windona



Series: Sandswept [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Star Wars AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-13 02:37:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5691484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windona/pseuds/Windona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an alternate universe where Anakin never fell to the Dark Side, he ends up spending some time in a cavern with his two children.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Dragon's Lair

The desert was, as always, rough. There was an apathy to it that Anakin felt comforting when he was a slave; even wealthy masters could be laid low by dehydration and Sand People. In his exile, he felt comforted by the apathy once more. The desert did not care if he was the failed Chosen One who allowed himself to be fooled for so long. It just saw him as a down on his luck mechanic, living with a lovely wife and two kids in his step brother’s home.

Those two four year olds were with him now, as they were crossing the desert to pick up some parts in Anchorhead. That had been when the signs of an approaching sandstorm showed up, with Anakin swerving into a nearby cave for waiting out the storm.

Anakin mentally cursed; he hadn’t seen any signs of the sand picking up on the horizon before heading out, and the Force had only given him enough warning to be able to head into this cave. Luke and Leia hugged their father tightly, and Anakin hugged them close and rubbed their hair soothingly. They didn’t cry out, and Anakin can feel their certainty that their father will keep them safe. The certainty gives Anakin focus, and he looks for a place in the cavern to camp out that will keep them safe and decently comfortable. He goes deeper down into the cave, taking out a glow stick to light the way.

The light seemed to be swallowed by the rough weathered stone, and the large cavern. The twins breathing seemed to be the loudest thing in this cavern, as if the sandstorm wailing outside was half the galaxy away. Anakin kept his left arm around Luke’s shoulder as Leia buried her head into his trousers. He held the glow stick in front of him, and had to force himself to not twitch at the memory of using his lightsaber like this a lifetime ago.

The saber was locked in a box in his room. He had trouble looking at it, after- after. He was barely able to look at Obi-Wan the few times they saw each other. He rarely taught Luke and Leia anything about the Force, just enough to protect them from being found and how to find their parents if they were in trouble.

Something rumbled lightly, and Anakin felt a tiny prickle of the Force that he had tried so hard to ignore. Yet Leia tugged on his trousers and walked towards an indent in the cave, where high pitched and muffled reptilian cries were coming from.

Anakin took a second to realize what was happening, and Luke had taken that second to join with Leia and go to the nest. Anakin ran over to his children, shouting for them to back up. They were already petting the baby krayt dragons.

Anakin’s shout echoed in the cavern. A rumble echoed back, and Anakin closed his eyes and prayed to Ekkreth that Ekkreth’s daughter would not make a meal of him and his children.

His hand slid to a vibroblade on his belt, and Anakin took up a defensive stance. Luke and Leia heard the second rumble, and looked up to their father. He felt their spike of fear at hearing the rumbling and seeing their father so tense. Anakin took a few deep breaths, preparing for bloodshed.

The krayt dragon lumbered large, barreling its way through. Its size and patterns marked it as a female, and its flaring nose indicated that it was not happy about the humans in its cave. Anakin took the blade in his hand.

The dragon huffed again, and charged at him. Anakin was thankful that the dragon was not running towards the nest. He jumped out of the way, and gave a shallow slash to the dragon’s flank. The dragon roared, and went to charge at Anakin once more, rage coloring its every movement.

Screeches and cries causes a cacophony from the nest. Anakin raised his blade, ready to stab into the dragon’s head.

“Daddy, don’t!” Luke said, leaping in front of Anakin and trembling while holding his hands up.

The dragon paused, confused by the scent of krayt pups on the human child. That moment let Leia join with Luke, bringing krayt pups with her. Seeing the large mother dragon calm down, Anakin sheathed his blade and held out his left hand.

Memories of the technique were slow and sluggish, having to dribble through the brackish memories of blood and pain. Yet gathering strength from his children before him, he called the technique up from all those years ago, and reached out into the Force to try and connect with the dragon. He focused on his desire to protect his children, and the willingness to let the dragon be alone as long as his children were safe.

The dragon sniffed Anakin, then sniffed Luke and Leia and the surrounding pups. A couple of the dragons squealed in delight, and began playing with Luke and Leia like they were dragons as well. Thankfully the pups had yet to grow sharp teeth and claws, but Anakin watched carefully along with the mother dragon.

Finally mollified, the mother dragon lightly nudged Anakin with her snout. She swung her head, motioning for Anakin to follow her. He did so obediently, something within him telling him that this was vital.

She led him to a section of the cavern far away from the mouth that held a gentle breeze going through, the air tousling his hair. Feeling the walls of the cavern, he grabbed the wall and walked down a bit. His eyes widened in surprise as he felt carved indents in the cavern walls. Taking out his glow stick, he noticed that the cavern had switched from rough weathered stone into chiseled walls with hieroglyphs. Numbly, Anakin realized he understood that language, although there were some words he didn’t understand and others that looked like a different form of the ones he was familiar with. After walking down the path for a bit, he saw that it opened up into a big expanse that his glow stick could not light up. He knew that he would have to come back to this place and explore it more thoroughly.

After he turned back and went back up the path, he arrived back in the room with the mother dragon licking her wound. Anakin sighed, and put his hands on her wound, using what he remembered of battlefield medicine to make it heal quicker and lessen the pain.

The dragon licked Anakin in thanks, inadvertently getting some of the licked up blood ground into his skin. Then the krayt dragon began coughing, like a giant tooka. Finally, the dragon hacked up a big shiny white pearl covered in mucus. The dragon nudged it towards Anakin, and Anakin relented and picked it up, wiping the mucus off with the hem of his robe.

Picking it up and examining it, he felt the Force flow through it oddly. It reminded him of a kyber crystal. The surface was smooth, and Anakin saw his face reflected in it. There were new lines gained from his failure and Order 66, but there also seemed to be something new there.

Finally, Anakin tore his eyes away from the pearl and looked back up at the dragon. “Thank you,” he said, giving a bow from the waist. The dragon purred, then fell asleep. Anakin sighed, and walked back to where his children were playing with the krayt pups.

Leia was stroking and petting the back of one which purred like an engine. Luke was gently wrestling with another one, laughing and giggling. Anakin looked over them as the sandstorm began to wane as quickly as it had started up.

When he scooped them up and got on his speeder to pick up the parts and head home, he did so with a renewed determination.

He knew what he had to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something I wrote today. Ekkreth and other Tatooine culture notes not in the movies are @fialleril's doing.


End file.
